The future is here and the leader has seen it

Tenzin Tsundue

By Tenzin Tsundue

In the 1970s, when the Tibetan exile government in Dharamsala had only one
telephone, a secretary called the Dalai Lama’s office which was two kilometers
uphill on the ridge of McLeod Ganj. The secretary called the Dalai Lama’s PA,
Lama Tara la. The voice on the other end said the PA was not in his officeand asked if he could take a message. On enquiring who
was on the line the voice said “Tenzin Gyatso”.

No one of that name worked in
that office. So the secretary asked “Tenzin Gyatso who?’’ It was then that the
secretary’s tubelight blinked. He was talking to the Dalai Lama himself. He
immediately hung up. Tibetans love making jokes about government officials.
Over the years people spiced up the story by saying the secretary knelt down
and offered three prostrations to the telephone.

When
we meet Chinese activists and intellectuals, our debates are contradictory on
almost all historical narratives. But about the origins of the Dalai Lama there
are no two stories. In 1578, the grandson of Genghis Khan, Altan Khan, invited
Tibet’s spiritual leader, the incarnate lama Sonam Gyatso, to Mongolia and gave
him the title “Talé Lama” meaning “Ocean of Wisdom” — now anglicized as “Dalai
Lama”. His two predecessors were posthumously named the First and Second “Talé
Lama”s. The Fourth, Yonten Gyatso, was a Mongolian. And Altan Khan’s son,
Gushri Khan, using his sweeping military might, helped the Great Fifth Lobsang
Gyatso and installed him as the ruler over all Tibet. Since then the Dalai
Lamas have been our spiritual and political leaders.

But
the relationship between the Tibetan populace and the Dalai Lama is older than
this 400-year history. From our parents and grandparents we learn early in
childhood that our guru is the incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva
of love and compassion, and that he had even earlier in history come to serve
the Tibetan people. In the almost 200 years of Tibetan empire building, from
the seventh to the ninth centuries — as Buddhism arrived from India — the
Tibetans were the most brutal warriors, plundering China, invading Mongolia,
expanding their empire into the land of the Pathans in the west and India to
the south. In the seventh century Avalokitesvara is believed to have manifested
as the 33rd emperor of Tibet, Songtsen Gampo, who first helped Buddhism flourish
in the Land of Snow.

The
Tibetans may not have had a strong standing army, nor learned to exploit their
rich resources to make bombs, but they have someone they are rightly proud of —
the “Wish-fulfilling Gem”, Chintamani, the Yeshin Norbu as His Holiness is
known in Tibetan. Tibetans working close to him address him as “Kundun”, the
holy presence, while His Holiness signs his name simply Dalai Lama Tenzin
Gyatso.

Of
all of his 14 lives, this Dalai Lama has been the most relevant to Tibetans
personally, touching every life. The suffering Tibetan people under Chinese
occupation — as more than a million, one sixth of its population died from
starvation and torture — found unity under his leadership. As the head of the
numerically dominant Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama has won
the hearts of believers of all other sects by his non-sectarian practice and
lineage teachings. History will hold him to be the most iconic Dalai Lama ever,
although he’s spent most of his life in exile, even calling himself son of
India.

Today,
instead of preparing for his next incarnation, the Dalai Lama is investing his
faith in something more modern and sustaining — Democracy. This has been his
long-standing vision: To create a system and culture of accountability within
the Tibetan community. Instead of begging His Holiness to lead us on, we must
come forward and take up the challenge he is handing over to us, his children.

Editor's NOTE-- Tenzin Tsundue is a die hard Tibetan activist. He is a great orator and greater writer, he uses his pen to empower his fellow Tibetans to join him in struggling for a free Tibet. The above article is initially published by the Indian Newspaper, Times of India, and to read more write ups by the author, readers can click here.

1 comment:

i got tremandous respect to tenzin tsoudu la but he should not mix history with with fairy tails.... we tibetans may believe that or confortable with such believes but in general history should be objective..... free from fantasies and emotions.... thats my suggestion.... thanking you...